South Peninsula Hospital’s forensic nurse Colleen James is retiring at the end of February 2023 after providing 34 years of medical service to the Kenai Peninsula. She founded the SART/SANE program (sexual assault response team / sexual assault nursing education) both here and at Central Peninsula Hospital and has contributed extensive training in the field across the entire state of Alaska.

In 2016, James received the Lights in the Night Award from the Alaska Children’s Alliance and the Visionary Nurse Award from the Alaska Nurses Association for her work in starting the SART/SANE programs. She started the programs in reaction to the need to care for child victims of sexual assault. SART members treat victims of sexual assault while also preserving forensic evidence to aid police in investigating crimes.

“I just felt very passionate that there had to be a better way to take care of victims of crime, of sexual assault, so I started researching and I found out there were a couple of programs in the United States using nurses to do the exams — and we had the first training there in Homer in 1993,” James said in 2016..

James moved to Alaska in 1988 and then to Homer to secure a position in nursing. In an interview on Feb. 17, James talked about some of her experience in the field and how things have — and in some cases, have not — transitioned over time.

“We definitely have a lot more trained people than we did when I first started in Homer,” she said.

In 1993, South Peninsula Hospital launched the first training program in Alaska.

“When we first got started, we served the entire state so for the first three years we treated people from everywhere, Southeast up to Fairbanks,” James said.

When clients came to Homer, their travel was often covered by law enforcement so they would either stay with South Peninsula Haven House (formerly South Peninsula Women’s Services) or immediately return to their home communities.

“When the program first started, we were only looking at sexual assault in people throughout the lifespan. Many programs look at specific age ranges, but we considered everybody — elders or infants and everyone in between,” James said.

“She has been a contributor to improving health systems across the state for a long time,” said Derotha Ferraro, Director of Public Relations at South Peninsula Hospital, in a phone interview last Friday. “It’s impressive that one nurse at small rural hospital has had this much impact statewide. She is the one whose efforts and enthusiasm started this SART team training in Homer and took it to Anchorage, the Valley and Fairbanks. What she provided took a lot of personal time and committed to training responders. It wasn’t required, but she went above and beyond to really elevate the level of response for the hospitals to offer the community.”

Accoridng to a Homer News article from 2016, James was a steadfast supporter to many communities as they began the process of founding Child Advocacy Centers and was instrumental in the founding of the Alaska Children’s Alliance and of the Child Advocacy Center in Homer. She coordinated and taught many multidisciplinary courses and classes in Alaska, nationally and internationally. For more than 10 years James was the Clinical Forensic Nursing Services Coordinator for the Central Peninsula Hospital and has served on the State of Alaska Child Death Review Team. She has also contributed to Sprout Family Services, a private nonprofit corporation with a core purpose of promoting the healthy development of children as a family support specialist.

“There is always a need for this kind of care in Alaska as a whole and Homer is no different. People are always surprised at how much violence there is in our state regarding sexual violence and violence within families. Alaska is number one in the United States in this field in so many different categories. We have always been incredibly lucky to have support in our community because that’s not always the case,” James said.

For more information or help with issues of sexual assault and sexual abuse, in Homer contact South Peninsula Haven House at its 24-hour help line at 907-235-8943 or havenhousealaska.or. The SPH website also has resources available at www.sphosp.org/, 907-235-8101. These organizations do work as a group.

“If there is an assault and someone chooses to report it, we involve law enforcement, also,” James said. “SPH provides medical services and Haven House provides immediate crisis prevention as well as long term services. Acknowledging the team efforts in the process is really important in working across these various agencies.”

After retirement, James expects to continue her interest in home grown foods.

“My main product is asparagus and other fruit trees. I definitely want to keep that going as well as expand things a little bit,” she said. “I have some other irons in the fire, because it’s not like me to just sit around and do nothing.”

Emilie Springer can be reached at emilie.springer@homernews.com

Colleen James looks through old photos of her 30 plus years of contributions to South Peninsula Hospital on Monday Feb. 20, 2023. Photo contributed by Derotha Ferraro.

Colleen James, Emergency Department Clinical Forensic Services Coordinator, at South Peninsula Hospital on Monday Feb. 20, 2023. Photo contributed by Derotha Ferraro.